196 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
DIES ORCHIDIAN#~. 
“Ts old Argus taking a holiday, or has he not returned from Ghent, 
supposing he ever got there? For two months we have seen nothing of 
him, and we begin to wonder what can be the matter.”” I hasten to assure 
my amiable correspondent that it’s nothing serious—just a hint from the 
Editor that reports of the big shows will take up all the available space, 
so my notes have to keep. 
First, then, I would allude to the flowering of the handsome Eulophiella 
Peetersiana by Sir Trevor Lawrence, which, somehow, I think will be 
the event of the year, just as the flowering of the giant Grammatophyllum 
speciosum was that of last year. It is a glorious thing, but I hope not too 
big for general cultivation. The flowers are much larger than those of 
E. Elisabeth, and of a most brilliant shade of purple, and, if only it 
proves to be as easily grown and as floriferous, we must find room for it. 
And how quietly it stole into cultivation. But this is not to be wondered 
at when the experience of the collector of the sister species is borne in 
mind. The present one has surely not been discovered by the dreaded 
‘* Protocryptoferox” and the truculent ‘ brother-in-law,’ or they would 
scarcely have wasted their time in guarding the few little plants left of 
E. Elisabethe, when a species so much finer needed their protection. 
To return, however, I must congratulate Sir Trevor Lawrence upon first 
flowering this fine species. It is a curious coincidence that E. Elisabethe 
first appeared in public as a single plant at the Ghent Quinquennial 
Exhibition in 1893, when it was the most remarkable new plant in the 
Show, and the present one, I believe, would have been in excellent 
condition for that of the present year had it not been previously cut for 
the Royal Horticultural Society’s Meeting. 
This brings me to the Ghent Show, where the Orchids, in spite of 
two excellent groups which it would have been hard to beat anywhere, 
showed a decided falling off as compared with the preceding one. 
What struck me as remarkable was the number of unfilled classes—no 
less than fifty-one out of a total of seventy-three—but I believe that the 
unusual lateness of the season was responsible for some of this. The 
middle of April is rather early in such a season, and I was told that 
certain things were so backward that they could not be got out in time. 
The two prize groups of M. Peeters and M. Vincke-Dujardin, however, 
were superb both in quality and culture, and several others were very 
good, though, in one or two cases, the first prize was withheld. And, 
singularly enough, the premier group of Odontoglossums came from 
